I too have missed the deadline by days,and have been highly frustrated.
It is a problem if you are an active creative,and submit hundreds/thousands of names in a 60 day period. It’s unreasonable to think we can keep tabs on every name. Plus I have had a contest close, but have it not be registered til after the 60 days.So you are out of luck out right of the gate,becuase of the 60 day rule,even though it just was registered.
I think the 60 days at least should start from the day of registration and not contest close. For names of mine that are unusual…I often do not discover they have been registered until I try to use it in another contest.If it is not a mainstream name…then months could easily go by until you have a contest it would fit for…then when you see it’s registered…it’s pretty much too bad, so sad.
I wonder too in some cases if people have caught on to the 60 day domain limit…so wait a little time to register knowing the creative will have no recourse,or won’t catch it.(I’m not accusing…just wondering.)
I had in one case a contest where THREE of my names were registered…but I didn’t find out til I tried to reuse one of the names and saw it was registered.So I then checked all the names trhat had been entered in that contest…and saw two others were registered too, and it had several reports of other domain registrations. But since it was past 60 days,I was out of luck.
I know it won’t change anything…but I think if your name gets registered, you should have the right at any time to be sure it was not taken without compensation,60 days or not. I know names are thought up and registered everyday…but I also think when a name I made up that is highly unusual has remained unthought of for years… it is very unlikely someone else within days or weeks of me submitting it, is going to suddenly come up with the exact same name. Not impossible…but unlikely.So I would like to at least have the right to follow up.
This is kind of a small request for SH and hopefully not a big hassle for you. I would like to recommend some font and character changes:
Submissions. We need a font that distinguishes a capital i from l better. For example, the word illustrate looks like Illustrate…3 llls
Comments. My screen shows me a really funky font for the comments when you open them. Parts of letters are missing or faint. It’s really hard to read and if the CHs are seeing that, too, it’s probably irritating.
I know we can’t submit names with odd characters or accents (I wish we could at least on names that don’t require a domain). But there are times when an accent would really look/feel great in a name. So I usually explain that in comments but if I try to put the word with an accent in it into the comment box, it creates some really weird other thing that isn’t a letter.
great suggestions. i totally agree with the i being hard to read capitalized. and the comments are visually very funky.
i know this is a bit of a hassle but if you want to add an accent mark you can copy/paste it into the entry form.
I just tested it out and it worked. it let me enter the word resumé for a contest. and it appeared exactly like that when i viewed it with the rest of my submissions for that contest. but then i quickly withdrew it bc it made no sense lol.
I would love it if CHa had to respond to a domain registration with a yes or no before awarding a contest, abandoned or not… many times I report I never get an answer, ugh frustrating
Yes!!! I think this is an excellent Idea. Domain registrations that are reported while the contest is open should be answered prior to the closing of the contest, and any domains that have been admittedly registered by the CH should be settled before the contest allowed to finalized. This seems only fair to creatives.
@Commulinks As always, thanks for the great suggestions! We will work on finding a font that is easier to distinguish between similar letters. We will also look into adding an accents / characters option.
It is stated in our policy to ensure that if a CH uses a name, they must compensate the creative by either selecting them as a winner, or sending them a bonus.
On the topic of Reporting Domain Registration, if we get a confirmation from the CH that they had registered the name, we ask them to either select the registered name as a winner or send them a minimum compensation of $50 as per our policy.
If a domain registration is reported and the CH does not send the compensation, after multiple follow ups, we automatically award the contest to the person whose entry was confirmed to be registered by the CH.
In abandoned contest situations, it is our policy to send multiple follow ups to the CH in case there are any reported domains in the contest. Sometimes, in abandoned contest cases, we do not hear back from CH because they are not reachable. It is our policy to make several attempts in this case, but if we still do not hear back, we award the contest as per our winner selection policy.
If we changed our policy to wait in these instances, we may have to wait indefinitely in some contests because the CH is not reachable. Please note that in most abandoned contests, a CH typically abandons a contest because they did not like any names or they stopped pursuing the business idea. In those cases we do not believe it is fair to leave the contests open indefinitely because the CH is not reachable.
Thank you Rachel!
Question: What happens when the CH registers multiple domains but has not chosen a winner? I’ve seen some of those sitting around past the time when they should have been closed. I assume it is because SH is continuing to ask them to choose the main one and pay the others? I think the question is, if they do neither thing, can the policy be changed to award the contestants whose names have been registered?
Just to clarify, if you see a contest with a ‘Reported Domain Registration’ this means that a creative has only “reported” to us a registration of their entry. This does not mean that the CH is responsible for registering the name. When a domain registration is reported, our team immediately starts the investigation and contacts the CH.
In these cases our policy is to first follow up the the CH. If the CH confirms the registration then we follow our policy which would be to either select the registered domain as the winner or award the creative a bonus.
If a contest is in the winner selection stage for more than 30 days, and has one or more reported domains, it is most likely the case that our team is in the process of investigating possible domain registrations. The main point we want to clarify is that a reported domain registration shown on a contest does not absolutely mean it has been registered by a CH. The reason for the investigation is to confirm that the registration was indeed the CH and to rule out any other possibilities that could be responsible for the registration.
Our policy states that if a name (or names) is registered by a CH, we ask that a minimum compensation of $50 be sent to the creative(s). In the scenario where we don’t hear back from the CH, we make additional follow ups, and after waiting few days, we follow our standard winner selection policy and award the contest based upon those entries which received the highest ratings. During this time, if the CH had confirmed that they registered the reported name, we automatically award the contest to that creative.
Our team has taken additional steps to help protect creatives from situations like domain registration by adding the ‘My Owned Names’ feature. Creatives are now able to protect their high quality names and best entries by personally registering them before submitting to contests!
Thanks Rachel, yeah, I do know this but when you see 5 domain registrations…well… it doesn’t feel like a coincidence. But I appreciate all you said here and I’m glad to know it.
New subject/suggestion for SH. I would love to see “updates” from CHs after their contests close. I am wondering if SH could send a “click to answer” kind of questionnaire that asks how long it will be before they think they can declare a winner and what is going on in their process. For example there might be choices like “Still checking trademarks” or “Running a short list past the team.” And, encouraging the CHs to come back and leave a message for the creatives.
I have an idea, what if a contest already closed, we the creatives already submitted several ideas, and CH liked few of our ideas. And then after CH announced the winner, the ideas of the other creatives that didnt win got hidden, just in case CH get back to their profile and check their contests, but we the creatives still can track the names. Can this reduce the possibility of domain registration without we know? just an idea . thank you
Disappointed that my entries have been submitted even though they are not available domains. CH has loved two of them. It was just brought to my attention they aren’t available. It’s never the .com that gives this issue. It’s always .com.au or .com.uk this keeps happening to me
@woods30. You should be able to verify all the dot com 's when you enter your names, providing the CH has the contest set up for them. When your .com entry is available, hit the .com and see if the other extensions are in the drop down list. If they are, hit the plus sign and add the name using each extension. Some CH"s want all to be available, some just want one. Hope that made sense